Home Movie of President Kennedy in Houston Donated to Sixth Floor Museum

This frame grab provided Feb. 22, 2011, by the The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in Dallas shows an image of President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy on the eve of his 1963 assassination. The silent film shows the Kennedy's during their appearance at a League of United Latin American Citizens at the Rice Hotel in Houston on the night of Nov. 21, 1963. Roy Botello of San Antonio, who shot the film with his home movie camera, has donated the film to the museum. AP Photo/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.

DALLAS, TX.- The Rice Hotel in Houston was the second stop of a planned five-city Texas visit that was to have finished at a fund-raiser dinner in Austin. The Kennedy assassination happened in Dallas the next day.

Shortly before 9 p.m. in the hotel's grand ballroom, President Kennedy spoke to a group of several hundred from the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). He then introduced First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy who spoke, without notes, in Spanish. The room erupted in cheers of "olé."

At the time, Roy Botello (bo-TAY-oh) served as the LULAC Scholarship Corporation Committee Chairman. As one of the top officials of the host committee, Botello had close access to the Kennedys that evening. He brought along his home movie camera and captured silent color film of the Kennedy arrival, welcoming dignitaries, a mariachi band and both Kennedys addressing the crowd.

"Roy Botello showed his home movie for the first time publicly last year and has generously donated the original film to the Museum for education and preservation," said Gary Mack, curator at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. "We commissioned a new film-to-video transfer that significantly improves these historic images."

The Museum is committed to finding and preserving home movies, photographs and news coverage of events related to JFK's November 21 - 22, 1963 trip to Texas and his assassination and to making these materials accessible to the public through exhibition, programs and research opportunities.

"The Museum's collections are an invaluable resource for everyone interested in the subject of the Kennedy assassination and legacy," said Nicola Longford, executive director of The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. "This film adds important visual documentation of the Kennedys' Texas trip to the collection, and we are grateful to Mr. Botello for his generous donation."